It looks like the gas tax repeal has made the ballot, and good for that. Now we’re hearing, only half the money from the new gas tax was intended for road repairs, the rest could be spent “at the discretion of local municipalities…” Ask yourself, when was the last time the road in front of your house was properly surfaced? How many sewer hook-ups with crappy patch jobs, how many crews pouring slobbers in pot holes that end up all over the underside of your car?
How about that $385,000 remodel on city of Chico council chambers? That was tacked on to your Comcast bill. Are you sick of “discretionary spending” yet?
From the San Diego Union Tribune, January 18:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/sd-me-gas-tax-20180118-story.html
So where is the money going?
Roughly half of the revenue from the increased gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, about $26 billion in the next decade, would go to transportation infrastructure maintained by the state. That includes about $1.8 billion a year for the highway system.
The other half of the money would be spent largely at the discretion of local municipalities on a variety of projects, predominantly related to road maintenance but also improvements to transit, bike and pedestrian infrastructure. About $1.5 billion annually is projected for repairs to local streets and roads.
And get aload of the carrots they’re waving in front of us!
The state is also planning to roll out annually about $25 million for freeway patrols for stranded motorists on the most heavily congested freeways, $25 million in local planning grants and $5 million in workforce training.
Right – cops won’t even do traffic control or come to the scene of an accident unless there’s a major injury, you really believe they will do freeway patrols for stranded motorists? And here’s two more lies gas tax proponents just keep repeating:
With the taxes and fee hikes, Californians will pay an extra $10 a month on average, according to the state Department of Transportation. A legislative analysis found that drivers currently spend roughly $700 a year fixing their cars due to poor roads.
First of all, it will be more than $10 a month between increased gas prices and the hike in registration. Second, how many of you are paying $700 a year to fix road damage on your cars?
Governor Moonbeam has lied to us before – for one thing, he told us he would not raise taxes without voter approval, and then he went right to the back door of the capital building with this gas and registration tax. He also told us the sales tax increase would be temporary, and that it would keep college tuition down – both lies.
Public workers have become The New One Percent, and they like it. They aren’t going to let go easily.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
With the taxes and fee hikes, Californians will pay an extra $10 a month on average, according to the state Department of Transportation. A legislative analysis found that drivers currently spend roughly $700 a year fixing their cars due to poor roads.
That’s just pure BS. For one thing, not only did gas go up but diesel went up over 20 cents a gallon. Anything shipped by truck is going up in price due to the increase in diesel. Anything in the production or distribution channels that uses diesel or gas directly or indirectly is going up in cost.
So it’s more than just the tax increase to the gallons of gas that you buy for your car or the increase in the registration tax you pay. And remember, these taxes go up EVERY year as they are indexed to inflation and the tax on gas goes up another 7 cents a gallon next year. The corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and the brain dead, lackey media never mentions any of this.
I bet Dowell didn’t mention any of this in his dog and pony show today. I wish I could have gone to that but I had to work.
I decided to blow off Dowell and stay home to work on a letter to the editor about the chamber remodel. I listened to council’s conversation – they all had a good laugh after approving the extra $25,000 over the notion that the money could be used to fix our streets. That’s extra funny, because several of them were on the council that wrote and passed the ordinance by which they take the money from our Comcast bills.
The ER wrote a puff piece about Dowell’s song and dance. And they quoted other bureaucrats about how wonderful it was. But what else can one expect from the local media? If any taxpayers asked any tough questions the ER did not report it.
Here’s an interesting article. Not too familiar with this Crane but for a connected bigwig he sure put the wood to the legislature…
The legislature is a coequal branch of government and governors can’t do anything without them. Generally speaking, the only people who know the names of California state legislators are people who feed at the trough or benefit from new legislation. The people who get screwed are everyone else in California.
Dang, never would have expected to read anything like that in the New York Slimes!
Now here’s something in that article that you can bet was not in Dowell’s song and dance…
The headlines make it seem as if the pension problem is always coming and never here. You say it’s already here. Explain.
State revenues have gone up about 30 percent over the last decade, but state spending on virtually everything other than retirement costs and medical spending – like universities, courts, parks and welfare – is flat to down. That kind of stuff happens because the money is going out the door to something else, and you ain’t seen nothing yet. The way the math works, the problem doubles every seven years.
Thanks Bob, that’s a good read!
The ER made note that only about 30 people showed up for Dowell’s Kool Aid party, and many of them were Downtown business owners and city/county employees – people who had been asked to come.
Yes, I’ve already noticed price hikes in my regular grocery purchases.
And yes, good read from Mr. Crane – I can see why they kicked him off CalSTRS.
Me too – bananas are up almost 10 cents a pound, which is alot.
Check this out. These people are worried the national average cost of unleaded regular gas will go to 2.70 per gallon. It’s now 2.50.
In this corrupt state we would be very luck to pay 2.50. The closest gas station to me is charging 3.21 for regular and it is one of the cheaper gas stations. That’s 71 cents above the national average.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/11/aaa-expects-higher-gas-prices-this-spring.html
Just another way the government in this state rips us off. But yet it isn’t nearly enough so they are always thinking of ways to steal even more from us and even with all they steal the roads still go to h#ll.
As we drive around town looking for cheaper gas and groceries we use more gas! As soon as my husband and I find a new discount grocery store, prices go up across the boards because of the new gas tax. It’s like being robbed on the highway every time you go out of the house.
And here is how absurd the pension situation will be soon…
By the early 2020s just about every city in the state participating in the California Public Employees Retirement System other than the most newly formed ones will be paying out more in pensions than they will be paying still-working employees.
And this is due to the bought and paid for politicians…
The beneficiaries of this arrangement – public employees already retired or set to retire over the next three decades – were able to forge for themselves the generous benefits over the last two generations by means of pooling their union dues to create political action committees which then made substantial donations to politicians at virtually every level in California politics. The politicians receiving this largesse have included federal office holders such as senators and members of the House of Representatives, state officers from governors, lieutenant governors, attorney generals, controllers, secretaries of state, state senators, assembly members, county officials such as members of the board of supervisors, sheriffs, district attorneys, treasurers, controllers and assessors, and local politicians such as mayors and council members, as well as school board, water board and fire board members. By supplying these politicians with the lifeblood of politics – money with which to run their election campaigns – these public employee unions have essentially purchased the indulgence of the elected officials who vote on setting the salary and benefits for those public employees. In case after case after case throughout the state, politicians have allowed satisfying their major political donors to take precedence over tending to the long term financial health and fiscal viability of the agencies they head.
http://sbcsentinel.com/2018/03/public-employee-pension-crisis-threatening-cities-continuation/
Here in Chico, Tom Lando put forward a “Memo of Understanding” linking salaries to revenue increases “but not decreases”. This was signed by council around 2006, including Larry Wahl and Maureen Kirk. That’s how city salaries went from around $60,000 to over $100,000/year. Now look at Orme – over $200,000, just in salary. I believe we’re already paying out more in pensions than we pay still working employees – remember this:
https://chicotaxpayers.com/2012/01/30/heres-why-lando-wants-to-raise-your-sales-tax/
that was from 2012, all those pension amounts have gone up with Cost of Living Adjustments.
And you can bet Dowell didn’t mention any of this in his song and dance…and Little is blissfully ignorant.
thanks Bob.
Forgive the digression but I just now saw this in USA Today and and had to post it somewhere! Chico has the second largest property crime surge in the nation and is #19 in the nation for violent crime increase.
19. Chico, Calif.
5-yr. violent crime rate change: +35.7%
2011 violent crime rate: 258.8 per 100,000 (total: 576)
2016 violent crime rate: 351.2 per 100,000 (total: 790)
December unemployment rate: 5.1%
Poverty rate: 19.9%
The violent crime rate in Chico rose from 259 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2011 to 351 per 100,000 residents in 2016. The 35.7% increase in violent crime was the third largest of any metro area in California and one of the largest in the country. There was also a substantial increase in property crime in the city. The property crime rate rose 34.5% over the past five years, from 2,415 instances of burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft per 100,000 residents in 2011 to 3,248 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2016 — the second largest increase in the nation.
While crime tends to rise with unemployment, Chico’s unemployment rate has fallen by more than half over the past five years, from 13.7% in 2011 to 6.5% in 2016 — one of the largest declines in the nation.
The statistics don’t mean much – an increase in crime here is huge percentage wise because we haven’t had that much violent crime here, historically. So a 35 % increase doesn’t amount to much. News Flash – there were not 576 violent crimes in Chico in 2011.
What we have here Donna, is “quality of life” crimes – illegal camping and trashing of our parks and public places, transient criminals roam our neighborhoods while we’re at work during the day or steal our kids’ bikes out of the garage while we’re running the dryer, etc. The cops use statistics like those you posted to tell us they need more money to do anything about it.
the real crime in Chico is the racket city $taff is running – essentially, we pay them almost double salary to sit on their asses asking for tax increases.